Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton Criticizes OpenAI's Sam Altman for Prioritizing Profits Over Safety

A Nobel Prize Winner Called Out OpenAI And Its CEO Sam Altman For Placing Profits Over Safety

OpenAI has been aggressively progressing by constantly evolving its AI technology and bringing in innovations. As a growing number of companies are focusing more on developing more cutting-edge products and services, there is an increasing concern regarding striking a balance between innovation, profit, and ethics, especially in the tech industry. The company has gotten itself in the middle of controversies and discussions over its changing direction and prioritization of profits that even sometimes compromise safety. Now, a Nobel Prize winner has put forward one such claim about Sam Altman and the trajectories during his leadership. Recently, Geoffrey E. Hinton and John J. Hopfield received the Nobel Prize for their contribution to the development of Artificial intelligence, and their technology is used by many tech giants, including OpenAI for its chatbots and Google for their search engines. In fact, Ilya Sutskever was a former Chief Scientist at OpenAI and was once a student of Hinton. While acknowledging the contribution of Sutskever, he also mentioned his dismay over the current direction of OpenAI and the aggressive focus on profits by CEO Sam Altman. Hinton further revealed that the increasing focus on commercialization without keeping AI safety in mind led to Sam Altman being ousted for a while. He was later reinstated after pressure from other members of the company. Sutskever carried out Altman's firing, but soon after the reinstatement, he left the company due to the stressful work environment between the two. Hinton's statement about Sam Altman's focus on profits is not the first, as the accusation is shared by many in the tech community and about OpenAI's changing focus from being a company largely focused on safety to now deviating from that path and moving towards profits. Many senior employees left due to the ongoing transitions, and now, only three co-founders remain at the company. OpenAI's leadership has a huge responsibility in defining the future of AI and the impact it would have on society, and Sam Altman's leadership has sparked criticism from many, including Ilya Sutskever, who believes the company is increasingly focusing on profits and not prioritizing the safety of its AI system any longer. There is no doubt the company is a huge success and has been able to gain a widespread user base rapidly, but given the potential risks advanced AI can bring forward, it is vital to address the ethical questions and keep the societal impact of AI in view.

2024 Physics Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton Says 'Particularly Proud' Of The Student That Fired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Who Was 'Less Concerned With Safety Than With Profits'

After winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in artificial intelligence, Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "Godfather of AI," took a jab at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. What Happened: During a conversation with University of Toronto president Meric Gertler, which was posted on YouTube on Wednesday, Hinton expressed pride in his students' achievements, particularly highlighting the incident involving Altman. The Nobel winner, who is a University Professor Emeritus of computer science at the University of Toronto, said, "I'd also like to acknowledge my students ... they've gone on to do great things. I'm particularly proud of the fact that one of my students fired Sam Altman." He was referring to Ilya Sutskever, who studied machine learning at the University of Toronto, where Hinton has been a longtime professor. See Also: Elon Musk Vows To Defend Freedom Of Speech, But 'Within The Boundaries Of The Law' As X Gets Brazil Greenlight To Resume Operations When asked to elaborate on his comment, Hinton said that explained that OpenAI was established with a strong emphasis on safety. Its primary objective was to develop artificial general intelligence and ensure its safety. "One of my former students, Ilya Sutskever was the chief scientist and over time it turned out that Sam Altman was much less concerned with safety than with profits and I think that's unfortunate," he stated. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It Matters: Last year in November, Altman stepped down from his role as CEO due to concerns about his transparency in communications with the board, leading to a loss of confidence in his leadership. Later, when OpenAI's staff and top executives revolted against the decision, Sutskever conceded, expressing regret over the board's decision. "I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI." Altman eventually returned as CEO of OpenAI. "We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo," the company stated at the time. In May 2024, Sutskever announced his departure from OpenAI, expressing confidence in the company's ability to develop artificial general intelligence under Altman's leadership. Later in September, Sutskever's AI startup, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), raised $1 billion to develop advanced AI systems. Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons Read Next: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Once Spoke About The Importance Of Every Country Needing A Sovereign AI -- But What Exactly Is This? Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

New Nobel Prize winner, AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton, says he's proud his student fired OpenAI boss Sam Altman

Only a handful scientists on earth ever earn the distinction of winning a Nobel Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime achievement forever etched into the annals of history. This made it that much more extraordinary that Geoffrey Hinton spoke for barely more than a minute before trashing the CEO of OpenAI during an ad hoc press briefing convened in honor of his award. Running on just two hours of sleep, the clearly humbled computer scientist said he had no idea he was even nominated for the reward. After thanking two of his chief collaborators over the years -- Terry Sejnowski and the late David Rumelhart, both of whom he called "mentors" -- Hinton went on to acknowledge the role his students at the University of Toronto have played over the years helping realize his life's work. "They've gone on to do great things," he said on Tuesday. "I'm particularly proud of the fact that one of my students fired Sam Altman. And I think I better leave it there." Hinton was referring to Ilya Sutskever. The former chief scientist at OpenAI joined Helen Toner and two others on the controlling nonprofit board to sack their CEO in a spectacular coup last November. Sutskever quickly regretted his role plunging OpenAI into crisis and Altman was returned to his role in a matter of days. Hinton and Sutskever had teamed up with Alex Krizhevsky in 2012 to create an algorithm that could identify objects in images it was fed with a degree of certainty unheard of at the time. Dubbed "AlexNet", it is often referred to as the Big Bang in AI. Often called one of the godfathers of artificial intelligence, Hinton praised the work of his peers Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun before making repeated self-deprecating remarks. These included admitting that as a young student he left the study of physics -- the field in which he was recognized by the Nobel committee -- since he couldn't handle the math. The news of Hinton's award comes weeks away from the first anniversary of Altman's brief, stunning and ultimately unsuccessful ouster -- as well as the second anniversary of the launch of ChatGPT at the end of November 2022. OpenAI's generative AI chatbot sparked a wave of interest in the technology, as the broader public began to realize for the first time that machines might surpass mankind in intellect this generation. "Quite a few good researchers believe that sometime in the next 20 years AI will become more intelligent than us and we need to think hard about what happens then," Hinton said on Tuesday. Altman is a controversial figure in the AI community. He's been dubbed a liar by ex-OpenAI board member Helen Toner and starved his AI safety team of resources, according to a now departed team leader. Altman is currently looking to shed OpenAI's nonprofit status as he races to monetize its technology, creating deep divisions within the organization. This has sparked an exodus of researchers at the company focused on aligning artificial general intelligence with the interests of humanity as Earth's still-dominant species. Asked about his disparaging remark towards Altman at the very beginning of the briefing, Hinton explained his reasoning. "Over time it turned out that Sam Altman was much less concerned with safety than with profits," he said, "and I think that's unfortunate." OpenAI couldn't be reached for comment. Luminaries like Hinton, 76, fear putting profit over ethics is inherently dangerous at the current juncture. It is already difficult for scientists to predict how today's most advanced AI models, with their trillions of parameters, actually arrive at their outcomes. Effectively they are becoming black boxes, and once that happens it's increasingly difficult to ensure humans maintain supremacy. "When we get things more intelligent than ourselves, no one really knows whether we're going to be able to control them," said Hinton, who pledged to devote his efforts to advocating for AI safety rather than spearheading frontier research. This risk from unknown unknowns is why California's state legislature proposed an AI safety bill that was the first of its kind in the United States. Influential Silicon Valley investors like Marc Andreessen lobbied heavily against the bill, however, and it was ultimately vetoed by governor Gavin Newsom last month. Asked about the potentially catastrophic risk posed by an out-of-control AI, Hinton admitted there was no certainty. "We don't know how to avoid them all at present," he said, "that's why we urgently need more research."

After winning Nobel for foundational AI work, Geoffrey Hinton says he's proud Ilya Sutskever 'fired Sam Altman' | TechCrunch

Geoffrey Hinton accepted a Nobel Prize this week, recognizing the foundational work on artificial neural networks that earned him the nickname "godfather of AI." In a speech Tuesday, Professor Hinton praised one student - alluding to OpenAI's former Chief Scientist, Ilya Sutskever - for revolting against OpenAI's CEO. "I was particularly fortunate to have many very clever students - much cleverer than me - who actually made things work," said Hinton. "They've gone on to do great things. I'm particularly proud of the fact that one of my students fired Sam Altman." Of course, Hinton is referring to OpenAI's board voting to fire Altman in November 2023. Sutskever delivered the news to Altman via video call, but later said he regretted it. Hinton seems to have celebrated the firing of OpenAI's CEO as a win for AI safety, which he often advocates for. However, the win was short-lived, as Altman now has more control over OpenAI than before, and he could soon get equity.